436 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 9, 1889. 
F^ofjidUTTUf^. 
The Florists’ Laced Pink. 
Our friend Mr. Thurstan is naturally a little disap¬ 
pointed that no tangible results have been seen as yet 
from the notes that have appeared in your excellent 
periodical in favour of Laced Pinks. Could not some¬ 
thing be done towards reviving the interest in these 
lovely flowers by the readers of The Gardening 
"World, say by raising a subscription, so that prizes 
could be offered for competition at a Manchester or 
London show ? The matter really wants taking up by 
those of our friends who have a little money to spare, 
and others who have leisure time, which they may be 
willing to bestow on the cause. I should be pleased 
to give a small subscription, in order to show how my 
sympathy goes. Are there not a few Barlows, Horners, 
and Thurstans in the background, who could be brought 
to the front 1 I do not agree with Mr. Thurstan’s 
suggestion to reduce the value of the prizes for Auriculas 
or Tulips ; tba f , to my mind, would be robbing “ Peter 
to pay Paul,” a process not calculated to encourage 
floriculture. I may add that I am not, nor am I likely 
to become an exhibitor at any show, as business takes 
me away from home fully three-parts of the year.— 
W. P., Birmingham. 
Potting Carnations. 
The frost lasting into the early days of March, and 
likely to continue, is delaying the work of getting 
Carnations into their blooming-pots. March may be 
said to be the month for this work, and in the case of a 
nursery establishment, where the work falls in in a 
regular sequence, it can be performed at the proper 
time, and without difficulty ; but in the case of the 
amateur, who has to do a great deal of the work of his 
garden at odd times, mainly at intervals snatched from 
his business, sharp frost in March may seriously delay 
important work. Mr. Joseph Lakin once told me he 
began in February, and continued the work as oppor¬ 
tunity offered. Depend upon it, early potting is better 
than late, and as friend Lakin once said, it is better to 
have the pots full of roots than of soil only ; but as 
Mr. Dodwell points out in his useful book, “ some dis¬ 
cretion is necessary in potting the different varieties, 
many requiring plenty of room, and others suffer from 
over-potting.” The general rule he therefore lays 
down is that the cultivator needs to be guided by the 
habit of the variety—as, for instance, the plants that 
are of a robust habit of growth require plenty of root- 
room, while those of spare growth require less. This is 
a simple rule, readily understood. Mr. Dodwell lays 
great stress on firm potting. He then sets forth its 
advantages. In the first place, it saves from the great 
injury of extreme saturation by heavy rain, and its 
correlative evil—drought ; and further, as soil well 
firmed is not subject to the excessive fluctuations of 
heat and cold which follow that of a loose texture, and 
as experience and theory alike teach that successful 
cultivation depends upon the nearest realisation of an 
equable temperature, gradually increasing according to 
the necessities of the plant, and the avoidance of 
sudden changes from heat to cold, and drought to 
moisture, firm potting goes far to produce for us these 
conditions, and therefore I prescribe it.” I am quite 
sure our floricultural G. 0. M. is right.— It. D. 
The Incidence of the Winter. 
Just when gardeners were hopeful they had sur¬ 
mounted the chief difficulties of the winter, a spell of 
keen frosty weather has again set in, and March opens 
like a lion, and to all appearance provocative of harm 
to vegetation. In the south of England many things 
have passed through, and may yet pass through the 
rigours of the winter with comparative safety ; but in 
the midland counties, and further north, where the 
climate is moister and colder, it is distressing to see 
how such things as Violas, Pansies, Sweet Williams, 
&c., have suffered. The fact is, that owing to the late 
moist season, with its mild October, the plants never 
got hardened up to the usual level of their winter 
endurance, and now that the frost is so persistent, 
scarcely relaxing its grasp for days together, things are 
seen to be suffering severely. A hundred thousand 
sighs are going up from gardeners for settled mild 
weather. If Mother Nature would only be peaceable, 
and give us some settled mild weather, then there 
would be joyous looking forward in the hope and 
expectation. Late sowing is made a necessity, for the 
soil is cold, wet, and comparatively unworkable, and 
seeds germinate badly. The growth of Pea, Onion, 
and other seeds saved in 1SS8, are found to be very 
bad indeed, and gardeners must not blame seedsmen for 
failures. They, we are quite sure, have done their best in 
the face of one of the mo3t trying seasons of the past 
quarter of a century, and fast upon the heels of poor 
growths comes great scarcity. During the past month 
the wholesale prices of Scarlet and Painted Lady 
Runner Beans, and some leading sorts of dwarf French 
Beans have nearly doubled, and they are not at all 
likely to come down again at present. Do not be in a 
hurry to sow. Have the ground in the best possible 
condition when you do so, and aid nature all you can, 
being patient and forbearing. This is the best advice I 
can give to gardeners at the present juncture.— R. D. 
-- 
THE RUBBISH HEAP. 
In all gardens, whether large or small, there is 
always a considerable amount of rubbish to be dealt 
with in some way or other, but the following remarks 
will be more applicable to places of some extent than to 
those of smaller dimensions, where there will often be 
obstacles in the way to prevent the carrying out of the 
suggestions I am about to make, on account of the 
nearness to other dwellings, the inhabitants of which 
would object to the practice described. That which 
comes under the general designation of rubbish in 
gardens consists of the Takings and clippings from 
shrubberies, decayed vegetable stalks, couch, the 
trimmings from hedges, old potting soil, and dead 
plants, the refuse from wood sheds and stack bottoms, 
and often a miscellaneous mass of other material which 
can hardly be specified. One only too common practice 
is to cart everything of this kind into some out-of-the- 
way place to lay and rot until circumstances may arise 
which necessitate its removal, when it will often be 
found a happy hunting ground for Nettles, Couch, 
Docks, and other noisome w'eeds, and of little or no 
use unless well stirred up with a plentiful addition of 
lime, soot, or salt. A mixture of these with matter of 
this kind forms an excellent dressing for meadow land 
where the multitude of annual weed seeds it generally 
contains do little or no harm. At the best, however, this 
is a wasteful and injudicious use to make of materials, 
which, if properly handled, can be converted into a 
really valuable manure, rich in carbon and phosphates, 
and the unsightly accumulation of rubbish is reduced 
to a minimum. 
Our own practice is generally to have a fire going, to 
which everything which can by any possibility be 
burnt, is taken, and sometimes during the past wet season 
very unpromising materials were burnt in this way. 
"We sometimes find a little difficulty with men in 
getting them to start and keep a fire of this kind going 
properly ; a good flaring one, which will quickly burn 
up any light material, seems more to their taste. To 
keep a fire going continuously for three months is not 
half so interesting, and the chances are that unless well 
looked after, it will go out within a week from the 
want of proper attention. Our modus operandi, when 
starting a fire, is to get, if possible, a few logs or stumps 
of trees and a few thick pieces of wood, and pile them 
up in a cone, surrounding them with the best of the 
shrub or other primings, and casing the whole over with 
shorter material. After setting fire to it, and finding it 
likely to burn well, commencing at the bottom, we 
build a wall with the heavier material—such as weeds, 
couch, &c.—all round and over it, about 1 ft. thick, 
and as it burns through, more stuff is put on to keep 
the heat in. 
In this manner the mass of material gradually 
smoulders away, the product being mostly a black 
mould, with some burnt red earth. "VYe carted near 
upon twenty loads from one heap in the autumn, most 
of which had a strong sooty smell, and I may say that 
the slower the combustion, the better the product. 
Wo use it largely when sowing Onions, Carrots, and 
Spinach, filling in the drills with it after sowing the 
seeds, and find it a preventative to the attacks of 
insects, a good manure, and of real service in keeping 
crops clean from weeds, because there are no seeds of 
the latter in it, and it forms a mark till after the crop 
is up, indicating where the drills are, and rendering the 
operation of hoeing between the rows much easier and 
more expeditious. 
Very often, too, we use it in our mixtures for the 
potting bench, believing that there is no soft-wooded 
section of plants which is not benefited by a judicious 
use of it. It acts both as a manure, and mechanically in 
keeping the soil open. Another use for it is as a 
dressing combined with lime and soot for Vine borders, 
and if used for earth closets, the combination is one of 
the most potent of home-made fertilisers which can be 
produced.— IV. B. G. 
PROTECTION OF WALL FRUIT 
TREES FROM SPRING FROSTS. 
The season is now at hand when it is necessary to keep 
a watchful eye upon fruit trees on walls, and to devise 
some means of protection from spring frosts. There 
are different methods adopted, but in this case, as 
often in a great many other things, the simplest is the 
most economical and best. I remember when I was a 
young man, under a very able gardener, who was 
careful and very particular about his fruit trees, as, 
indeed, he was in everything, I saw a plan adopted 
which I have never seen practised elsewhere, although 
it may possibly be adopted in some gardens. He placed 
some long poles, which reached from the ground to the 
top of the wall in a slanting position, and securely 
fastened them there to prevent the wind from moving 
them, after which he tied some straw bands horizontally 
from pole to pole, and at distances of about 6 ins. or 8 
ins. apart, from the top of the wall to about 4 ft. from 
the bottom, so as to shelter the whole surface of the 
trees. He allowed it to remain until all danger from 
frost was past. 
This plan is a very successful one, and during the 
whole time I was acquainted with him he was always 
successful with his wall-fruit crops. It has these advan¬ 
tages, that while it protects the trees from frost, it will 
allow the sun’s rays to penetrate to all parts of the trees, 
and admit of sufficient light and air to keep the blossoms 
sturdy and vigorous. Another plan is to tie branches 
of Spruce Fir thinly over all parts of the trees. "When 
this is adopted, it is necessary to tie them very securely, 
as a strong wind might otherwise blow them off, or 
cause them to rub against and perhaps break off the 
spurs or blossoms from the trees. This is a very 
good and a most ample protection, and will resist many 
degrees of frost. As the season advances, the fir branches 
wither, and their leaves will keep dropping off until 
they become quite bare, thus gradually exposing and 
hardening off the trees, until at length when the leaves 
on the fruit trees on the walls become sufficient 
protection, they can be safely taken off. In most 
country places, plenty of fir branches can be obtained 
with very little labour, and nothing better can be had 
for the purpose of fruit tree protection from spring 
frosts 
There are several mechanical appliances adopted for 
this purpose, according to the taste or fancy of the 
operator, and tiffany, canvas, Frigi Domo, and such-like 
are commonly employed. These are very good in their 
way, and the only possible objection to them is that 
they entail a vast amount of labour in putting up, 
opening, or closing at a season of the year when gar¬ 
deners are very busy and have plenty of other work to 
do; whereas in the other methods I have mentioned 
they are simply put up and taken down once for all, 
these two operations being all that is necessary each 
spring .—Alfred Gaut. 
-- 
PAPAVER ORIENT ALE, 
BLUSH QUEEN. 
Great strides are now being made in the production of 
beautiful garden forms of the Oriental Poppy. The 
species itself is an old inhabitant of our gardens, having 
been introduced from America in 1714. As evidence of 
its popularity we find it widely scattered in gardens 
throughout the country ; it owes its popularity to 
various causes, such as its perennial character, and the 
fact that, though it ripens seeds freely in this country, 
it never becomes weedy by the scattering of seeds about 
the garden, or rather because the latter do not readily 
germinate when left to themselves. It also forms a bold, 
vigorous bush, sending up flower stems to the height of 
2 ft. or 3 ft., bearing enormous flowers of a brilliant 
scarlet, with a black blotch at the base of each petal. 
Varieties are now in cultivation without the black 
blotch, as well as others showing a considerable variety 
of tints and shading ; but the variety named Blush 
Queen is one of the most distinct, and must ultimately 
find its way into most collections of hardy plants. In 
every respect it agrees with the type, except that we 
lose the brilliant but glaring scarlet of the flowers, 
which are here of a pleasing blush tint with a deep 
purple blotch at the base of each petal. The flowers 
are therefore much more agreeable to the eye than those 
of the type ; the foliage is bold and deeply cut, and the 
finest effects are obtained by planting in masses. To 
Mr. T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, the 
credit is due for raising this, as well as other new 
varieties of the Oriental Toppy, and to him we are 
indebted for the opportunity of figuring it. On p. 433 
we give an illustration of the ordinary type, P. orientalis, 
